SummerSlam (2007)
SummerSlam (2007) was the twentieth annual SummerSlam professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on August 26, 2007, at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey and featured talent from each of WWE's three brands: Raw, SmackDown!, and ECW. Tickets for SummerSlam went on sale December 30 and sold out in forty minutes. The main feud, a staged rivalry between wrestlers, heading into the event from the Raw brand was between John Cena and Randy Orton. On the July 23 episode of Raw, Jonathan Coachman announced Orton as the number one contender to the WWE Championship. Over the proceeding weeks, Orton provoked Cena by interfering and attacking him during his matches. From SmackDown, the predominant feud was between The Great Khali and Batista. After Khali defeated Batista and Kane in a Triple Threat match, a match between three wrestlers contested under standard rules, Theodore Long booked Khali to defend the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista at SummerSlam. The primary feud from ECW was between John Morrison and CM Punk. By defeating Morrison in a 15 Minutes of Fame match, Punk became the number one contender to the ECW Championship at SummerSlam. Several of the existing feuds carried on after the event. Notably, CM Punk continued to face John Morrison, defeating him for the ECW Championship the following month on ECW on Sci Fi. The day after SummerSlam, Orton, as part of the scripted events, interfered in a match between Cena and King Booker and intensified the feud by attacking Cena's father. Khali and Batista faced each other at Unforgiven, the following pay-per-view, as part of a Triple Threat match; Batista was victorious in this match and won the World Heavyweight Championship. Production Background World Wrestling Entertainment had originally planned a storyline between the cast of the Jackass TV series and Umaga, with the conclusion in a match at SummerSlam. It was scheduled to begin at the previous pay-per-view event, The Great American Bash, but was canceled after the Jackass cast dropped out due to the negative media attention surrounding the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide. Storylines The main staged rivalry heading into SummerSlam on the Raw brand was between John Cena and Randy Orton over the WWE Championship. At The Great American Bash, Cena defeated Bobby Lashley to retain the WWE Championship. The next night on Raw, one of three main television programs of WWE (along with WWE SmackDown and ECW on Sci Fi), after a Handicap match involving Cena, Orton came out and executed an RKO on Cena. Shortly thereafter, Executive Assistant Jonathan Coachman announced Orton as the new number-one contender to the WWE Championship. Before that, Orton claimed that he had never faced Cena in a one-on-one WWE Championship match. On the July 30 episode of Raw, Carlito defeated Cena in a non-title match after Orton interfered and distracted Cena. Three weeks later, on the August 18 episode of Saturday Night's Main Event, Cena faced off against Carlito in another non-title match, which Cena won. After the match, Orton came out and attacked Cena, which led to a RKO from Orton through a steel chair. The main storyline on the SmackDown brand was between The Great Khali and Batista over the World Heavyweight Championship. On the July 6 episode of SmackDown, Khali issued an open challenge for a match at The Great American Bash, which was accepted by Batista later that night. On SmackDown the following week, the match between Khali and Batista was made official after a contract signing. That same night, then-World Heavyweight Champion Edge, who was scheduled to face Kane for the title at The Great American Bash, suffered a real injury—a left pectoral muscle tear—after Kane interrupted his Mardi Gras style celebration. On the July 20 episode of SmackDown, Edge was forced to vacate the World Heavyweight Championship due to the severity of his injury. SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long then announced that there would be a 20-man Battle Royal later that night to determine a new World Heavyweight Champion. Khali won the Battle Royal and became the new World Heavyweight Champion by last eliminating Kane and Batista. Khali defeated the two and retained the title at The Great American Bash. Five days later on SmackDown, Batista interrupted Khali's celebration and challenged him to a match at SummerSlam. The next week, on the August 3 episode of SmackDown, Long announced that Khali would defend his title against Batista at SummerSlam. Another main rivalry on the Raw brand heading into SummerSlam was between the returning Triple H against King Booker. At New Year's Revolution, during a World Tag Team Championship match between Rated-RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) and D-Generation X (Shawn Michaels and Triple H), Triple H suffered a legitimate torn right quadriceps during the match that left him out of action. On July 16, Booker T, who was referred to as King Booker after winning the 2006 King of the Ring tournament, entered using Triple H's entrance music "King of Kings". King Booker declared that neither Triple H nor Jerry Lawler could be known as "The King". On the August 6 episode of Raw, King Booker defeated Lawler in a match where the loser had to crown the winner the next week. When the time came, Lawler refused, declaring that Triple H was still a king and announcing that King Booker would face Triple H at SummerSlam. Booker then attacked Lawler, throwing him into the ring post and hitting him with a TV monitor. The predominant staged rivalry from the ECW brand was between John Morrison and CM Punk over the ECW Championship. Morrison won the title at Vengeance: Night of Champions, the pay-per-view two months before SummerSlam by defeating CM Punk. At the following pay-per-view, The Great American Bash, Morrison defeated Punk to retain the ECW Championship. On the July 31 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, Punk defeated Tommy Dreamer and Elijah Burke in a Triple threat match to earn a 15 Minutes of Fame match with Morrison. The following week, on ECW on Sci Fi, Punk defeated Morrison by pinfall after executing a GTS (Go To Sleep). As a result of this victory, Punk earned himself a championship match against Morrison at SummerSlam. One of the primary preliminary matches was a standard one-on-one match between Rey Mysterio and Chavo Guerrero. Their storyline first began in July 2006 at The Great American Bash. Guerrero interfered in Mysterio's World Heavyweight Championship match with King Booker by hitting Mysterio with a steel chair. Guerrero defeated Mysterio the following month at SummerSlam 2006, winning the match after performing a frog splash At No Mercy, the pay-per-view two months after SummerSlam, Mysterio defeated Guerrero in a Falls Count Anywhere match, pinning him after performing a crossbody off a guard rail. Two weeks later, Guerrero defeated Mysterio in an "I Quit" match forcing him to quit after hitting his left knee repeatedly with a steel chair. During the match, Mysterio suffered a real injury—an ACL and patella tendon tear in his left knee. Ten months later, on the August 3 episode of SmackDown!, a match between Mysterio and Guerrero was booked for SummerSlam. Aftermath During the event, John Cena provoked his feud with Randy Orton. On the August 27 episode of Raw, Cena faced King Booker in a non-title match. When Cena appeared close to winning, Randy Orton interfered and attacked him, causing Booker to lose by disqualification. After the match ended, Orton attacked Cena's father, who was sitting at ringside, and kicked him in the head. The two faced each other in a rematch at Unforgiven for the WWE Championship. Cena was disqualified in the match for continuously punching Orton. Orton won the match but not the title. Afterwards, Cena's father kicked Orton in the head, in the same way Orton had kicked his one-month prior. On the August 31 episode of SmackDown, Rey Mysterio, Finlay, Kane, and Batista participated in a four-man Championship Competition tournament. Mysterio defeated Batista and Finlay and became the number-one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship at Unforgiven. On the September 7 episode of SmackDown, Mysterio defeated Chavo Guerrero in an "I Quit" match. After the match, The Great Khali attacked Mysterio until Batista came out and executed a spear on Khali. Batista was then included in the one-on-one title match at Unforgiven, making it a Triple Threat match. At the event, Batista won the championship for a third time. The feud between Matt Hardy and Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) continued when they were forced to team up against Deuce 'n Domino on the August 31 episode of SmackDown. They won the match and the WWE Tag Team Championship. The following month at Unforgiven, MVP and Hardy defeated Deuce 'n Domino to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship. In October, at No Mercy, Hardy defeated MVP in a pizza-eating contest. On the November 16 episode of SmackDown, MVP and Hardy lost the WWE Tag Team Championship to the team of The Miz and John Morrison. Umaga lost the WWE Intercontinental Championship to Jeff Hardy on the September 3 episode of Raw. Afterwards, Umaga started a feud with Triple H and faced off against him in a Street Fight two months later at Cyber Sunday. At Unforgiven, Candice Michelle defeated Beth Phoenix to retain the WWE Women's Championship. Phoenix, however, later defeated Candice at No Mercy to win the title. On the September 4 episode of ECW on Sci Fi, CM Punk defeated John Morrison to win the ECW Championship. At Cyber Sunday, Punk retained the title by defeating The Miz. The following month, at Survivor Series, Punk defeated Morrison and The Miz in a Triple Threat match to retain the ECW Championship. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * SummerSlam Category:SummerSlam Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2007 Pay-Per-View Events